GIRLS SOCCER: Shutout streak, season ends for Boyertown

BOYERTOWN — The incredible string of shutouts by the Boyertown girls soccer team was bound to end sometime.

Unfortunately for the Bears, that happened Thursday night in the second round of the District 1-AAA playoffs where a loss would mean the end of the season. And not only did the Bears’ shutout streak end after 16 games, but they also allowed a second goal and fell to Pennsbury, 2-1 at Memorial Stadium.

Robyn Piveteau scored for seventh-seeded Boyertown (16-2-2) with 23 minutes to go to bring the hosts within one and the Bears put on the pressure the rest of the way, even having a shot at tying it on a free kick chance with 13 seconds left. Lexi Brown and Megan Engeland scored for 10th-seeded Falcons (14-4-2) and Oche Onuoha assisted on both goals.

“I just told the girls I loved their effort in the second half,” said Bears coach Bill Goddard. “We put all kinds of pressure on them. Pennsbury was very opportunistic tonight. They didn’t have many chances, but they made the most of them.”

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Brown scored in 25th minute on a long blast from at least 30 yards out on the right side that found the upper left corner of the goal. That was the first score allowed by the Bears since a 2-0 loss to Owen J. Roberts on September 10 and only the fifth of the season.

“That was just a beautiful strike by Lexi,” said Falcon coach Kaitlyn Battiste. “That was definitely a spark that we needed. It really gave our defenders and midfielders a chance to settle in. It was the buffer we needed.”

Boyertown had a chance to tie it – three, in fact – when they put together a string of three straight corner kicks with 20 minutes left in the half. But a shot was deflected wide over the goal on the first one and Pennsbury keeper Sarah McDonald made the save on a shot from right out in front by Jill Bertino off a nice kick from the right corner by Megan Diehl on the last one.

Then the Bears had another good chance five minutes into the second half, but a shot by Emily Diehl hit the crossbar.

Pennsbury scored its second goal six minutes after the break when a free kick from just inside the left sideline was knocked away by Bear keeper Sarafina Valenti, but Engeland was there for the rebound and knocked it into the net.

“I think we took advantage of the opportunities we had,” said Battiste. “On the second goal, she just took a good shot.”

But the Bears were far from finished, despite the rare deficit. They came right back down the field after the second Falcon score and Emily Diehl pushed a shot past the charging keeper, but defender Bridget Congdon cleared the ball out just before it rolled across the goal line.

Boyertown closed the gap with 22:48 remaining when Piveteau scored off a pass from Megan Diehl and really applied the pressure over the last 10 minutes. Piveteau chipped one toward the left corner of the goal with six minutes left, but McDonald made a sliding save and Maria Garofolo put a shot on net with four minutes left, but McDonald was right there to make the catch.

Then Garofolo shot at the left corner, but McDonald was able to get a hand on the ball and tip it wide to the left and the hosts could not capitalize on the resulting corner kick – their fifth of the night to three by Pennsbury. Finally, the Bears had a free kick in the closing seconds, but a header went wide left just before time ran out for the game and the season.

“An amazing game,” said Battiste, whose team will meet either Neshaminy, a 4-0 winner over Garnet Valley, in a quarterfinal on Saturday. “We were obviously aware coming in that they had a big shutout streak. They’re a talented program. They have a great future with a freshman goalkeeper. This was a huge win.”

“At halftime we knew we were still in the game,” said Goddard. “We made some adjustments. We put pressure on them.”

But the season still came to an end for the Bears in exactly the same spot as last year when they lost a second round match on penalty kicks.

“We seem to get stuck at this point,” said Goddard. “Pennsbury’s a great opponent. This was a great game. This is a hurdle for us. But we really thought coming in we were going to clear it.”

Boyertown should have another shot at getting past this difficult point next year.

“We only lose three starters (Piveteau, Lauren Mengel, and Amanda Garber), and we have a lot of experience returning,” Goddard added. “Coming into the game, we had that shutout streak going. It was going to end sooner or later. But we won the PAC-10 championship. We had 16 straight shutouts, which is incredible right there. It’s going to be a long time before that’s broken. I’m proud of the kids and the effort they gave all year. They represented the school and the community well.”